Tubular prostheses made from natural tissue have been widely used in recent years in the surgical repair and replacement of diseased or damaged blood vessels in human patients. Natural tissue prostheses fall into three general classes. Autogenous material tissue prostheses are prepared from tissues taken from the patient's own body (e.g., saphenous vein grafts). Use of such prostheses eliminates the possibility of rejection of the implanted prosthesis, but requires a more extensive and time-consuming surgical intervention with attendant risks to the patient. Homologous natural tissue prostheses are prepared from tissue taken from another human, while heterologous natural tissue prostheses are prepared from tissue taken from another species. The use of homologous and heterologous umblical cord vessels as, e.g., vascular and ureteral prostheses is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,894,530; 3,974,526 and 3,988,782.
Autogenous vascular prostheses prepared from sheets of pericardial tissue have been disclosed by Yoshio Sako, "Prevention of Dilation in Autogenous Venous and Pericardial Grafts in the Thoracic Aorta", Surgery, 30, pp. 148-160 (1951) and by Robert G. Allen and Francis H. Cole, Jr., "Modified Blalock Shunts Utilizing Pericardial Tube Grafts", Jour. Pediatr. Surg., 12(3), pp. 287-294 (1977). Heterologous vascular prostheses prepared from sheets of porcine pericardial tissue have been disclosed by Ornvold K. et al., "Structural Changes of Stabilized Porcine Pericardium after Experimental and Clinical Implantation", in Proc. Eur. Soc. for Artif. Organs, Vol. VI, Geneva, Switzerland (1979).
The necessary characteristics of a tubular vascular prosthesis are biological compatibility, adequate strength, resistance to infection, resistance to biological degradation, non-thrombogenicity and lack of a tendency to promote aneurysm formation. As used in this application the term biological compatibility means that the prosthesis is non-toxic in the in vivo environment of its intended use, and is not rejected by the patient's physiological system (i.e. is non-antigenic). Furthermore, it is desirable that the prosthesis be capable of production at an economical cost in a wide variety of lengths, diameters and shapes (e.g., straight, curved, bifurcated), be readily anastomosed to the patient's body and to other tubular prostheses of the same or different type, exhibit dimensional stability in use, and, in order to minimize hemodynamic turbulence and trama to the native vessel, have a compliance comparable to that of the patient's natural vessel that it is repairing or replacing (see discussion of compliance in U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,689). Finally, it is disadvantageous because of the risk of kinking to implant a tubular prosthesis that is too long for the intended application. On the other hand, implantation of a prosthesis that is too short places excessive tension on the anastomoses at its ends, thereby resulting in trama to said anastomoses. Thus, it would be highly desirable to provide a tubular prosthesis that can be cut transversely to a desired length at any point between its ends without otherwise substantially damaging the prosthesis.